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New York Times
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
3 Video Games You May Have Missed in February
One of the major video game releases in February had players navigate the chaos of a growing empire, with Civilization VII introducing historical ages to the turn-based strategy series. Another, the fantasy role-playing game Avowed, gave an emperor's envoy incredible power. There were more intimate stories as well, including The Stone of Madness, a tactical-stealth game set in a monastery turned asylum, and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, whose opening chapter has rebellious grit and an inspiring riot grrrl essence. Here are three other games you may have missed this month: Keep Driving If you're the sort of person who feels nostalgia for picking out CDs from your dashboard visor, making long-distance calls on your Nokia brick phone or scarfing down a slice of pizza while tinny rock music blares into the quiet night, the appeal of a game like Keep Driving is obvious. Set in the fantasized memories of nascent adulthood in the early 2000s, Keep Driving is a fun, low-stakes adventure about hopping in a car and going on a long drive somewhere, or nowhere in particular. Your ostensible task is to make your way to a music festival a few towns over. In order to simulate the hazards you'll encounter along the way, the game cleverly retrofits classic card game mechanics. A virtual deck of cards, each card with its own thematically appropriate skill — 'Drive Fast' uses extra fuel to clear obstacles — will help you make it past slow-moving tractors, flocks of sheep and even distracting rainbows. You'll fight exhaustion and a perpetually depleting gas tank. You'll pick up an assortment of hitchhikers. You might even choose to get drunk and party, crashing your ride and winding up in rehab. All these surprises and disasters are the kinds of experiences that texture and support a rich and interesting life. Although Keep Driving has a profoundly hopeful message, it also captures the raucous plasticity and vivacious drive of youth, reminding us that we all once wound up stranded without gas on the side of an empty road. Urban Myth Dissolution Center Azami Fukurai, the high-strung heroine of this Japanese visual novel, has a problem: She sees ghosts. At least that's what she thinks until she follows up on a Tokyo advertisement and visits the Urban Myth Dissolution Center, where she hopes to find a remedy for her onerous gift. When she meets the director, a cerebral young man in a wheelchair, she learns that the hazy apparitions she sometimes glimpses are not wandering shades but 'vestiges of persons and objects that existed and are retained everywhere.' The director convinces her (using a bit of financial leverage) to join his detective agency, which specializes in matters that fall outside the purview of traditional police work. Azami's investigations enmesh her in the personal lives of those who have been affected by things that seem to defy ordinary explanation — a livestreamer who sees a ghost in a mirror; a woman terrified by a man who creeps around her apartment at night. But what gives this game a special flair is that it's really about the battle against misinformation. Again and again, Azami watches how social media latches on to sensational stories and then amplifies rumors, biases and half-baked theories. I wished the game's episodes involved less backtracking. A little bit of editing could have gone a long way in delivering a punchier experience. But while not all of the game's plot twists are created equal, its skeptical bent mitigates its languors to some extent. While Waiting For those who have been bored, frustrated or even anxious when killing time, the often-charming, sometimes-perplexing While Waiting offers a tantalizing series of wait-based minigames. Here, biding time isn't a chore. That's because the narrative arc of one's life feels true. At the beginning of 100 short experiences, I was born a boy. The birth included a lemming-like line across a bridge before I was dropped through clouds that flowed like water. As a child, I reclined warily, hoping for sleep yet haunted by ghosts. As a soccer goalkeeper, I found a ray gun in the sky to shoot targets. My reward was being hit in the face by the ball. I should have concentrated on the pitch. Each scenario is timed. Although you can just sit and relax with a fidget spinner, the player really should accomplish a few tasks before time is up. When you're hanging out in a cafe watching for a bus, the rain dripping down the window inventively turns into a Space Invaders-style game. During class, you avoid the teacher by unhurriedly crawling on the floor. It's kind of a version of Pac-Man, if you were a slow loris. Likely inspirations for While Waiting include the WarioWare series, but this art is never lurid. A delicate pen-and-ink art style features minimalist yet endearingly convincing facial expressions in a game where you must often decipher an objective as the clock ticks down.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
From What's Out To What's Coming: 17 Cool Games We're Checking Out In February
Welcome to February, an otherwise quiet, wintery month that has quickly established itself in recent years as one of the hottest times for developers to release their games. Some of the biggest games of 2025 are out this month, as well as some of the longest, with February bookended by massive RPGs that many players may spend all year slowly chipping away at. Fans of open-world games are getting a slight reprieve. Assassin's Creed Shadows was originally also going to drop this month but was pushed to March at the last minute. That will free players up to take on sprawling adventures like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Avowed, and Monster Hunter Wilds instead. But there are a lot of cool-looking smaller games to checkout this month as well, at least a few of which could become sleeper GOTY contenders in their own right. Here are all the major game releases in February 2025: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II is one of those sequels that takes the first game and tries to make it bigger, more detailed, and more immersive in every way. Based on early reviews, it basically accomplishes that. The medieval RPG sim is bursting with detailed side quests and gameplay friction that makes merely surviving a challenge. It's been topping the Steam charts this month, even if its grueling realism won't be everyone's cup of tea. Developer: Warhorse Studios Publisher: Deep Silver Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC The Nintendo Switch exclusive is now on PC. Where Crypt of the NecroDancer was a rhythm-based dungeon crawler, Rift is a more familiar Guitar Hero-style puzzle adventure. It takes the enemy pattern recognition of the previous game and applies the escalating anxiety of combat that doesn't end until the song's over. It's really great. Developer: Brace Yourself Games, Tic Toc Games Publisher: Klei Publishing Platforms: Switch, PC Momodora: Moonlit Farewell is the latest entry in the Momodora series. Released on PC last year, the 2D, magic-infused anime Metroidvania is now on consoles as well. In a crowded genre, it manages to stand out thanks to beautiful art and fun exploration. Developer: Bombservice Publisher: Playism Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC Civilization VII is the first new 4X game in the franchise in roughly a decade, and looks to streamline some of the strategy series' gameplay while also making important changes like altering how historical eras work and adding new crisis events that can upend how things progress. Early players have hammered it for its UI and other elements feeling 'unfinished,' but it has a strong foundation to build on. Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: 2K Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC Urban Myth Dissolution Center is a visual novel in which you investigate cursed relics and paranormal anomalies against the backdrop of creepy, lo-fi cutscenes. As Azami Fukurai, you take on the role of detective, working for a Ghostbusters-like organization where you scrape social media to unravel urban legends. I hope it's basically X-Files with cool psychedelic pixel art. Developer: Hakababunko Publisher: Shueisha Games Platforms: PS5, Switch, PC Slimes are usually introduced early on in RPGs as the easiest enemies to kill. In Slime Heroes, however, you actually play as one. It's a souls-like action-RPG platformer in which you collect gems to unlock new abilities and enact your revenge on a colorful, uncaring world. There's also local and online co-op. Slime buddies unite! Developer: Pancake Games Publisher: Whitehorn Games Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II is the latest turn-based RPG in the sprawling Trails series. It takes place directly after the events of the first game, and includes cameos from veteran characters that will be harder to appreciate unless you're up to speed on the previous entries. But if you're looking for a long, intricate JRPG, this one's for you. Developer: Nihon Falcom Publisher: NIS America Platforms: PS5, Switch, PC The second batch of remastered classic Tomb Raider games has arrived. Tomb Raider IV–VI Remastered charts the action-adventure series' shift from PS1 to PS2 and will include some of the bumpier games in the series history. Hopefully, the remastered elements make them easier to appreciate in a new light. Developer: Aspyr, Crystal Dynamics Publisher: Aspyr Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC It's been a while since we had a big, meaty first-person fantasy RPG. Avowed, from the studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds, will combine Skyrim-like gameplay with the world and lore of Pillars of Eternity, with a heavy emphasis on side quests and negotiating between various factions. It'll be on Game Pass day one for PC and Ultimate subscribers. Developer: Obsidian Entertainment Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC Four friends reunite later in life to retrace their memories of a pivotal summer long ago. Lost Records seems like It for '90s kids, leaning more into tech-fueled alienation than occult horror. It'll be out in two parts with the first one coming this month. I don't normally mesh well with narrative-driven adventure games but this one has me more intrigued than most. Developer: Dontnod Publisher: Dontnod Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC 'War is over. War is just beginning.' That's the slogan of Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog, a retro sci-fi love letter to '80s anime where you manage a patrol ship on the edge of space investigating a strange new anomaly. It's narrative-focused, so be ready for lots of reading, but the pixel-art animations of everything from ship console controls to mechs fighting in space look incredible. Developer: Space Colony Studios Publisher: Astrolabe Games, Meridiem Games Platforms: PS5, PS4, Switch, PC When it comes to Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, you either know or you don't. If you don't, all that matters is it's a real-time action spin-off taking place after the events of Infinite Wealth. It follows beloved side-character Goro Majima as he sails around to various islands taking on the local criminal underworld. Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Publisher: Sega Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC The once-forgotten Game Boy Advance exclusive is finally back. Action platformer Ninja Five-O was one of the Nintendo handheld's most underrated games. Now players can once again step into the shoes of ninja Joe Osugi as he takes down a group of mystical terrorists in retro side-scrolling levels. Developer: Limited Run Games Publisher: Konami Platforms: PS5, PS4, Switch, PC With an emphasis on wild movement, The Local is a first-person open-world shoot-em-up that looks super rad. All your favorite movement types are here including rail grinding, sliding, wall running, climbing, air strafing, and bunny hopping. There's also multiplayer and a leaderboard for chasing high scores. Developer: Tobey Gronow Publisher: JINC Platforms: PC It's time to duel! Yugi Mutou returns to card battling in a collection of over a dozen of the franchise's earliest games, now with online play, save anywhere, rewind, and other modern quality-of-life features. Developer: Digital Eclipse Publisher: Konami Platforms: PC, Switch Monster Hunter is finally makings its current-gen debut with Wilds,built from the ground up for modern high-end consoles and gaming PCs. If you've never hopped on the monster hunting train before, now is probably the time. Wilds is shaping up to be one of the more visually impressive and mechanically rich entries in the action-RPG series. Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC The biggest (and only real) golfing franchise returns this month with its latest entry. PGA Tour 2K25 overhauls the MyPlayer creation options and adds new swing settings and other tweaks. Developer: HB Studios Publisher: 2K Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
